Canadian Family in Life Support Battle Places Hope in Michigan Hospital

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Molly Henneberg - FoxNews.com




The parents of a Canadian boy ordered off life support by government health officials are pinning their hopes on Michigan Children's Hospital in Detroit.

Moe Maraachli and his wife, Sana Nader, of Windsor, Ontario, are asking the Detroit hospital to accept their 13-month-old son, Joseph, currently kept alive by a respirator at a Canadian hospital. The family wants Michigan Children’s Hospital to perform a tracheotomy on the child, who suffers from a rare, progressive neurological disease which, Canadian doctors say, has left him in a vegetative state beyond recovery.

Joseph’s parents believe that if the Detroit hospital will accept the child and conduct the operation, in which doctors would place a breathing tube in his windpipe, he could be cared for at home.

But time could quickly be running out.

Canadian health care allocation officials already ruled that Joseph had to be taken off life support and allowed to die in the hospital. A Canadian judge then ruled that Moe Maraachli had to give his consent to having the breathing tube removed by Monday. He refused.

Maraachli says turning off life support could cause his son to choke and suffocate. He told Fox News on Wednesday that the doctors at London Health Sciences Centre have said the “best treatment” is to “let him die… I don’t know what kind of treatment that [is].”

The family believes this procedure will allow Joseph to breathe on his own, and thereby be able to go home and likely die there.

Doctors are now asking the Canadian government to allow them to remove the breathing tube without the family’s consent. The Ontario hospital contends that a tracheotomy would be painful for the boy, despite their argument that Joseph is in a vegetative state.

But officials there appear to be cooperating with the transfer request, noting in a statement, “We can confirm that we have sent the medical record, which is over 1,000 pages to the Children's Hospital of Michigan...This is an extremely difficult time for the family, and our goal is to continue to provide compassionate care and support to baby Joseph and his family."

The London Health Services Centre says it will wait until it hears back from the Detroit hospital before making any further decisions about life support.

[DemonGeminiX]

That's rough.

[Max]

It's heart breaking. It really is a no win situation.

If the little fella is to pass soon, I think the parents should decided where it should be. I hope Detroit takes him.

[Godfather]

Not a good situation my heart goes out to these people.

The parents should probably have the right to decide but you have to think the reality is these people are such a mess they'd be wiling to hopelessly keep te boy in a vegetative state indefinitely. I hate to say it, but if the doctors say he's gone.... He is. Going broke paying for health care in another country isn't the answer.

If a panel of doctors and judges tells my family I'm a vegetable, please let me go. Don't drag me around performing surgeries so I can die with even less dignity. That's just the way I feel...

Still. Huge moral delemna

[Joebob034]

I wish the best, but it's a tough situation.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Canadian Hospital Agrees to Let Boy in Vegetative State Die at Home
Fox News


The Canadian hospital under fire for ordering parents to remove their young son from life support because he is a vegetative state has backed down and agreed to one of the family's requests: to let the boy die at home.

London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ontario, issued a statement Monday afternoon saying that it will bring 13-month-old Joseph Maraachli to his family's home, but it then insists that staff members remove the boy from a respirator, possibly giving him only minutes more to live, the London Free Press reported.

“London Health Sciences Centre is and always has been willing to organize and pay for a medical transfer home to Windsor (where the family lives) for Baby Joseph, accompanied by LHSC physicians and staff,” the hospital said.

But the hospital still will not agree to the parents' request to perform a tracheotomy on Joseph, a measure the hospital calls needlessly invasive but the family has said helped their older child who suffered a similar condition live another six months.

The announcement comes as the hospital finds itself on the receiving end of threats sent by e-mail and phone calls, many of them said to come from the U.S. The hospital has since beefed up its security.

Joseph's parents had hoped to transfer him to a hospital in Michigan to perform the tracheotomy, but the Michigan hospital declined to accept the boy as a patient after reviewing his medical files.

The boy suffers from a rare, progressive neurological disease which, Canadian doctors say, has left him in a vegetative state beyond recovery.

A spokesman for Maraachli’s family told FoxNews.com the family is "working on an appeal" to the Michigan hospital's decision. The hospital declined to comment on "any matters surrounding the case."

Canadian health care allocation officials already ruled that Joseph had to be taken off life support and allowed to die in the hospital.

[AntZ]

EXCLUSIVE: 'Baby Joseph' Gets Second Chance at Life in U.S.

Published March 14, 2011 | FoxNews.com



The baby who was hours from being pulled off life support at his Canadian hospital has been rescued by the national director of Priests for Life and taken to the U.S. for treatment.

Thirteen-month-old Joseph Maraachli, who is currently kept alive by a respirator and was recently denied a transfer to a Michigan hospital to undergo a tracheotomy, arrived in the U.S. early Monday morning with Fr. Frank Pavone and other Priests for Life staff.

"Priests for Life staff toiled through the night for many nights, working in concert with dozens of people to make this possible," Father Pavone said in a statement. "Now that we have won the battle against the medical bureaucracy in Canada, the real work of saving Baby Joseph can begin."

Maraachli was on his way to SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis, Mo., a non-profit health-care facility open to all children in need of medical care.

The boy suffers from a rare, progressive neurological disease which, Canadian doctors say, has left him in a vegetative state beyond recovery. He has been at the Children’s Hospital in London, Ontario, since the fall.

Priests for Life says it represents a family of ministries that "reach and enrich every aspect of the pro-life movement," according to its website. The group has been strong advocates for the boy's release and critical of his treatment in Canada.

"The medical board overseeing his case is apparently convinced that giving proper care to 'Baby Joseph' is futile," the website reads. "They don’t mean that the medical care won’t help him. They mean his life in its current condition isn’t worth the trouble."

[FBD]

"The medical board overseeing his case is apparently convinced that giving proper care to 'Baby Joseph' is futile," the website reads. "They don’t mean that the medical care won’t help him. They mean his life in its current condition isn’t worth the trouble."

That's what happens when you have a one size fits all healthcare system - if you're an outlier, buh bye, good luck, gtfo and make room for the next.

[AntZ]

That's what happens when you have a one size fits all healthcare system - if you're an outlier, buh bye, good luck, gtfo and make room for the next.

Notice that the medical board became a "death Panel"!

The very thing that the Obama care people insisted would NEVER happen here, and any talk of it was an absurd scare tactic!

[Arkady Renko]

I find it disgusting that the case of this poor family who are dismayed by the fate of their baby is being made into a media circus and how scavengers like this priests gang try to abuse it for their political agenda.

[FBD]

yup, the priests couldnt POSSIBLY be acting out of compassion!